Memories of old
by Skins Thunderbomb
Summary: Skyfire reflects back on the past, and wonders if things can ever be normal again. Full summary inside. Runs intermezzo with 'I'm leaving' COMPLETE
1. Attack for Pain

I had a dream the other night, which I had to put down on paper, because it was so desperately cute and sweet. This story, unlike some of my other ones I have written by dreams, is complete.

1 - Attack for pain

_The Decepticon attack on the science centre had left all but one alive … who was it? You may ask. But this one doesn't want his history known.   
And only one was alive to tell it …   
It … is a sad tale … _

INITIATING MEMORY BANKS   
CLUSTER 468758 ACTIVATED   
SUBJECT: THE DEFENDOR   
BEGIN VIDEO DOWNLOAD   
  
I could hear them … they had come for the researches, and nothing more. I would not let them destroy this place. But what hope did I have of saving it? I am a mere professor. What could I do?   
But, I knew I had to do something.   
I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find: a laser sword. The bombs had begun to fly, and I felt the building around me shudder. I needed to get out of here! And out there …   
I felt the fire in me flare. Not many knew of it, but I did know my duty as an Air Guardian. I went out there, and I saw them all.   
Six fully-grown seeker jets were shooting down the hopeless scientists as they fought for freedom. I span to meet them as I transformed, shooting at them as fast as I could go. They saw me, and scampered, but not before the Autobots had arrived.   
The next parts of the battle I don't remember, for I was too busy looking at the wreckage of the dismantled science lab that I had only taught in an hour ago. I held back tears, for I knew that no one could have survived such a blow. No, no one …


	2. Tiny little Seeker

2 - Tiny little seeker

MEMORY LAPSE

COMMENCING OVERRIDE

OVERRIDE UNSUCSESSFUL

VIDEO STREAMING RESUMED

But still, I flew down though one of the many holes in the roof of the building. Light from our sun streamed though, and I thought it a sign that maybe things would be okay … that maybe they had survived …   
But I could not sense anything. There was no life in this room … one that had been the hall where everyone would have been just an hour ago.   
But wait … something had stirred.   
I stopped walking.   
I could feel an energy signature, coming from an over turned desk to my right. Then there was a frightened snivel, and I turned around. I could just see the tip of a blue foot before it was retracted and I made my way towards the being. I kept my distance from the box, for I did not want to frighten it.   
Then, I saw the little guy. He was huddled up, visibly shaking with his optics shut tight. He was a seeker alright, painted silver with highlights of red and blue, with a nearly black head. A pyramid seeker was what they were called, but this one was very young. Hardly a danger to me. Not like I would suspect such a creature to be a danger. He was very scared, and, although the situation was so dim, I could not suppress the urge to think how cute the little guy was. Just a childlike cuteness, and totally innocent.   
I crouched down, knowing that my size would probably have scared him further. I then called out to him softly, although my voice carried though the room as if I had said it normally.   
"Hey …"   
The little seeker opened his optics, and looked my way for a second. His optics were crimson, and his face was grey I saw. He looked curiously, and then cringed as I moved. Obviously, he expected an attack to him or something like it.

I held out my hand. "Its okay, I wont hurt you …"

The seeker was trembling I saw, but I did not make any more moves. He needed to trust me on his own.

When I did not move an inch for a full minute, he finally opened his optics again, and looked up at me. I looked back, a smile forming on my face as I saw his fear had lessened a little. He moved his arm away from his face and looked at me fully, almost shyly. My smile widened. Seriously, this kid was growing on me and he had barely done a thing. I think it was because of the fact that he was the only survivor left that made me want to help him.

The little seeker then slowly, cautiously, stood up. He was tiny compared to me, barely over a third of my height. I saw more of him now; his lower arms and hands were blue, as were his feet and thrusters on the back of his legs. He had a red torso and pelvis area and a jet cockpit on his stomach. He had three wigs as normal for a pyramid jet, and they had a stripe of red along them. He looked up at me; he only just came up to my chin even when I was crouching. He seemed to notice that, and made a slight movement as if to step back, but decided against it.

"Its okay …" I whispered.

He had his hands clasped against his chest, and his body was curled up in nervousness. But it appeared my words had had an effect on him. Slowly, very slowly, he walked up to me, his footsteps uneasy. As he came level with me, he looked up into my optics, as if seeking trust in them. He then reached out a tiny hand, and placed it in my own. He looked uncertain, but then I slowly placed my hand over his.

"What's your name?" I asked softly. The little seeker seemed a bit happier now, seeming to be building some trust for me.

"I'm … I'm Starscream." He said. His voice was high, and sad. He was obviously grieving for the loss too.

Slowly, I placed my other hand on his shoulder as he swayed. Soon enough, he fell into my embrace, trembling against me. I shh'ed him, and placed my arms around him in a light hug.

"Don't worry." I whispered. "I'll take care of you …"

The little seeker nodded against my chest, and I gently picked him up. There was no point staying in this ruin. I needed to find some place to stay now.

With my little seeker.

VIDEO TRANSMISSION SUCSESSFUL

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE

UPLOAD ANOTHER?

_Yes … perhaps there is another ending to this tale …_


	3. Bonding

3 – Bonding

From then on, Starscream was my child and friend. Once he had got over the shock of being almost blown to bits and meeting a 'giant white monster' as he thought I was at first, he was very happy, carefree and incredibly curious. Also, with a delight, I found that he was very intelligent and had a keen interest for science.

Just now, him and I are at the new library. No one but him and I are in the room, so the seeker had a free reign of being as noisy as he liked. I had also found out that he was very energetic (as was expected at his age) and once he trusted someone, he stuck to them like adhesive. We had found a new place to live, away from the Decepticons for now.

I was reading a data pad when the little guy decided to jump on my lap.

"Hey!" I cried out, as he giggled and nuzzled his head under my chin. He was a very affectionate transformer too, I found out.

I was a softy, I knew, as I smiled and hugged him around his torso. He looked up at me with a big grin and held out a data pad.

"This is the one you were looking for, wasn't it?" He said.

I gasped. It was EXACLY what I needed!

"Good on ya!" I cried out happily, taking it from his hand. "This is the right one!"

He giggled again and curled up in my lap as I began to read it.

OVERMEOTIONAL STATE

COMMENCE SHUTDOWN?

_No_

CONTINUE VIDEO STREAMING

_Yes, further now …_


	4. Bonding II

4 – Bonding

My seeker was fully grown now.

Standing to half of my height, he was as tall as most Transformers now. And Primus, it was no wonder the femmes had gone gaga over him at the Science academy. His childlike cuteness had been replaced by that of a handsome mech, and it made me proud that I had somewhat raised him. He loved flying much more now, and would spend many hours in the skies with me, or on his own.

He was not interested really in getting a femme friend. He was more interested in his work to bother with a relationship; I saw, and spend many hours at home reading. But soon it was time for us to depart Cybertron and become explorers. He was as excited as I was about travelling to different worlds.

I had just come home now, having had to go and stock up on the basic supplies for our trip to Orbitus – a strange planet that was rumoured to have life.

As I put the large crate full of Energon down, I spotted Starscream in the lounge, watching a holo-vid about exploration. He was sitting with his hands in front of him, like a cat would sit, his optics glued on the screen. I chuckled to myself; the seeker might have grown up, but he still did the strangest things.

"Hey! Starscream turn that off!" I called. "Come on! We need to get ready to go!"

My call snapped him out of it, and he got up, turning off the holo-vid as he did.

"Oo! You got some heavy stuff!" He said in glee, having spotted the red energon. I quickly, but lightly batted his hand away from it with a grin.

"Not now, you naughty seeker." I mothered. It was so funny to play games with my seeker.

He fake pouted and whined, "But I want it …"

I waved my finger, "We can't always get what we want-"

"But I can fight you for it!"

He suddenly tackled me. Surprised, I fell down with him laughing at me. I soon joined in, having no idea why we were laughing. I guess it was because he was nervous about the voyage …

We packed within that day, and headed to Orbitus.

SUDDEN VIDEO END

CONTINUE TO MEMORY FLASHES?

_Yes._


	5. Snow kills

5 – Snow kills

Our voyages were fun, dangerous, and made us stronger. We learned much from the many planets we explored in our days, but none was as memorable as Earth.

It was a long-term project, we decided, for the blue planet was a long way away from Cybertron.

And so, we flew.

As we came close to the planet, I detected no intelligent life on the planet. Neither did Starscream, he said to me.

"We better head back."

I heard the disappointment in his voice. He had found this planet himself from the observatory back home, and he had been sure there had been life on it. And we had come all this way …

"Lets go down, Starscream." I radioed to him. "There could be something there even so."

He agreed.

We broke though the atmosphere, feeling it burn, but we were used to it by now. I couldn't help but keep an eye on Starscream, for he was more vulnerable than I was to a shutdown, as he was not designed for space flight.

But he was fine. We flew over the primitive world, noting that it was organic. But then, as we flew over the north polar cap, was when danger struck.

A snowstorm.

It came up so sudden I didn't have time to warn my companion about it. We battled the winds, but they were far too strong for the both of us. I saw Starscream get blown away with a shrill scream, and I tried to call out to him. But it was no use. I couldn't see where I was going … the snow was too much.

And then … everything went white …

MEMORY ENDED

_I will show you more … of what happened when I awoke …but it is too terrible for even me … the person who has to remember it. So I will tell you now._

_I woke to find myself seeing a world many millions of years later, and Starscream had changed. He was no longer the pyramid jet I remembered, and he no longer looked so happy … no. He was cold. Cold and hard as diamond now._

_I did not understand. How could I? I had not been awake for millions of years to see the changes. But one thing was certain. He had to leave his new leader Megatron. Yes, he had to go._

_And he did._

_Eventually, he gathered the courage to leave, and I could not have been prouder of him. After many battles with his mind and heart, he came though. Sure, he was still a Decepticon, but he made the time to see me … and be who he once was._

COMMENCE MEMORY UPLOAD?

_Yes … there is one more thing I want to show you …_


	6. Sunsets Heal

6 – Sunset's heal

I was sitting on a cliff face, staring over the sea. It was bad for a mechs health due to the salt to be out here, but the wind was not coming from the ocean, but the opposite way. While I watched, my seeker was sitting beside me, also enjoying the view.

"I remember you used to love your sunsets … on all those planets." I said. He smiled, his optics closed.

"You know, this sun is a G2 V star. Said to be of average size by the humans …"

As I prattled on, I was not aware that Starscream had stood up, and started to make a funny sound. I think humans would name it purring, but how he did it, I did not know.

"…Its about 1,292,000 kilometres across too. Man, it is strange to have such a small star when ours was twice the size of it-"

Suddenly, Starscream nuzzled his head under my chin with a loud purr, and I stopped talking. Suddenly, I became aware that this was just like what he did when we were back at the library on so many occasions. But it didn't explain his purr.

"How? …" I murmured, as he rested his head under my chin, but he didn't seem to want to explain.

"Do shut up, Skyfire." He said. "I was enjoying the sunset."

I couldn't help but chuckle at him. He glared at me, but it was a playful glare.

"Explain how you can make that noise." I said with a grin.

"Well …" He began, leaning against me for fun, it seemed. I had my arm around his back, unused to his new Earthen design. "Its like my jet motors are on standby, and I make the sound in time with my breathing. Makes it sound like a purr. TC and Skywarp can do it as well, I found out. Heh, Scavenger thought it was cute when he heard me purr while sleep. I would have slaughtered him if I had of been awake enough."

"I think it's cute." I said, and laughed as starscream tackled me with a yell of anger.

"I am not _cute_!" He snarled, but I knew he would not hurt me.

I grabbed his torso area, and hit a certain spot that I knew about. He was very ticklish there, I knew, and soon he was laughing with tears streaming out of his optics. I sat up and placed him on my lap like a child, and would not let go.

"Skyfire - get - off - me!" He hissed, struggling, but then giving up soon enough. I let him go and he instantly turned around. He didn't say anything except look sulkily at me, and I grinned at him. He grinned back, slowly, before hitting my spot. I burst out laughing as Starscream tickled me with a malicious grin on his face.

"Okay, okay! I give up!" I cried out. He stopped, and then curled up against me, like he had before. Of course, he was much bigger now, but still able to as I was much larger than most transformers. I was made that way so I could carry out my role as an Air Guardian.

"Seeker," I murmured, as he looked up at me. "One day, when this war is all over, would you like to come back with me?"

Starscream smiled, and suddenly I remembered that handsome mech I knew before we departed on our journeys.

"Sure."

VIDEO UPLOAD COMPLETE

UPLOAD ANOTHER?

_No. That is enough. They will know now …_

_"Computer, archive all video files"_

__FILES ARCHIVED

_I pray that these video will not fall into the wrong hands._

_I left the media room, leaving my six files behind …_

__

_Starscream looked over at his PC as the e-mail sign beeped. _

_There was no message, just an attachment._

_It was titled: 'Memories of Old: You and I"_

_The seeker smiled, and played them._

_"I remember that promise …"_

The End!

I hope you enjoyed it.

ST


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